Chestnuts Making a Comeback-- Part 3

Continued from Feb. 20th and 22nd.

THE CHESTNUT

 Many Americans, including me (or at least I think), have never tasted a chestnut though the nut was once common throughout the country before an invasive disease wiped out virtually all American chestnut trees.  Now several growers in the U.S. are working to bring the chestnut back.

TALL HISTORY

EARLY AMERICA:  The eastern half of the U.S. was full of American chestnut trees before 1900.  Twenty-five per cent of the hardwood canopy in the eastern forests was made up of chestnut trees.

WOOD:  Because the trees grow quickly and tall (80 feet or more) and the wood resisted rot, they were preferred for building early cabins, poles and railroad ties.

FOOD:  Besides humans eating the nuts, they were often used to fatten livestock.  In the forests, many animals depended on the hardy trees.

BLIGHT:  A fungus brought to the U.S. on Asian trees infected the forests, eventually wiping out almost all the mature trees.

NATURAL RANGE OF THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT:  A band running from northern Mississippi and Alabama to the New England states.  (Illinois wasn't in it, though).

There were an estimated 4 billion American chestnuts before the chestnut blight.

One More Entry to Go.  --DaCoot